


AN 



ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE 



PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



JULY I, 1886 



DANIEL C. OILMAN 

President of the Johns Hopkms University 



.^xo 






AN 



ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE 



PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



JULY I, 1886 



DANIEL C. OILMAN 

President of the Johns Hopkins University 




1886 









JOHN MURPHY & CO., PRINTERS, 
BALTIMORE. 



ADDRESS. 



"ITO one can visit Cambridge this summer with- 
1 out remembering that two hundred and fifty 
years ago, an acorn was here planted from 
which an oak has grown. JNTo scholar can come from 
a distant state without wishing to offer his tribute, 
however inadequate it may be, to the wisdom which 
has governed the counsels of Harvard through eight 
generations. A graduate of Yale will, I trust, be 
pardoned for associating the name of his own alma 
mater with that of her elder sister. Their united 
influence has not only been strong in JSTew Eng- 
land, — but strong in other portions of the land. It 
is difficult to surmise what would have been the 
condition of American society if these foundations 
had never existed. Their graduates have pro- 
moted the literature, the science, the statesmanship 
and the religion of the land, — but more than this 
is true. Their methods of instruction, their un- 
written laws, their high endeavors and their 
academic spirit have reappeared in each new state 
of the west, as each new state has initiated its 

3 



4 Imfluence of Harvard and Yale. 

social order. To be governed by the experience 
of Harvard an'd Yale is in many an educa- 
tional court an appeal to common law. To 
establish another Harvard or another Yale, to 
nurture the germ from which a great university 
might grow, has been the aspiration of many 
a patriot, of many a Christian. It was a lau- 
reate of both Harvard and Yale, the sagacious 
Manasseh Cutler, who initiated the policy of secur- 
ing in the States beyond the Alleghanies a certain 
portion of the public lands for the foundation of 
universities. Among the pioneers of California 
was one who went from JNTew England "with col- 
lege on the brain," and now every ship which enters 
the Golden Gate, faces the buildings of a university 
which Henry Durant did much to establish. 

The history of higher education as guided by the 
two oldest foundations in this country may be con- 
sidered in four periods : in the first, extending 
from the earliest settlement until the Revolution, 
the English college idea was dominant in its sim- 
plest form ; the second, following the severance of 
allegiance to the Crown, was the time when profes- 
sional schools in Medicine, Law and Theology were 
begun; the third, beginning about the middle of 
this century, w^as marked by the formation of 
scientific schools ; and in the present period we are 
looking for the fulfilment of the university ideal, 
brought hither by the earliest immigrants from 
England. 



Influence of Harvard and Yale. 5 

The colonial vocabulary was modest. Whatever 
else it might be, — University seemed a very great 
noun, to be used as guardedly as episcopacy or 
sovereignty. In the earliest mention I remember 
of the cradle of Harvard, the alternative is found 
"a school or colledge"; and in Connecticut, "col- 
legiate school " was in vogue for seventeen years. 
"We on purpose gave your academy as low a 
name as we could that it might the better stand in 
wind and weather;" said the well-known civilians 
who were consulted in 1701 by Pierpont and his 
colleagues at the mouth of the Quinnipiac. Else- 
where, under other influences, there was not the 
same caution — nor the same success. Several 
years before the settlement of Massachusetts Bay, 
the Virginia company determined to set apart at 
Henrico, ten thousand acres of land for " a univer- 
sity," including one thousand for a college "for 
the children of the infidels." There was another 
project for a university, as early as 1624, which 
has lately been brought to light. Dr. E. D. Neill, 
in Virginia Vetusta, calls attention to the fact that 
an island in the Susquehanna, which the traveller 
may see to the north as he crosses the railroad 
bridge at Havre de Grace, was conditionally given 
for " the foundinge and maintenance of a univer- 
sitie and such schools in Virginia as shall there 
be erected and shall be called Academia Virginiensis 
et Oxoniensisy The death of the projector, Edward 
Palmer, interrupted his plans. 



6 English Graduates in New England. 

Mr. Dexter has established the fact that before 
1647, nearly a hundred graduates of English uni- 
versities had migrated to JN^ew England, three- 
fourths of whom were from Cambridge ; and the 
elaborate volumes of Mullinger exhibit in great 
fulness the conditions of collegiate and university 
life as they were known to these Cambridge w^an- 
derers in the earliest half of the seventeenth cen- 
tury. It is evident that the university idea was 
then subordinate to the collegiate ; logic was rid- 
ing a high horse ; science and literature, as then 
represented by mathematics and Greek, were alike 
undervalued. An anecdote recorded by Mullinger 
reveals at a glance the situation. " Seth Ward, 
having lighted on some mathematical works in the 
library of Sidney, could find no one to interpret 
them. The books, says his biographer, were Greek, 
— I mean unintelligible to all the fellows." The 
spirit of observation, experiment, and research was 
rarely apparent ; discipline by masters and tutors 
took precedence of the inspiration of professors. 
When we consider this origin, still more when we 
recall the poverty of the colonists, and still more 
when we think of the comprehensiveness of the 
university ideal, even in the seventeenth century, 
it is not strange that before the Revolution, Ameri- 
can colleges were colleges and nothing more. Even 
degrees were only conferred in the faculty of Arts. 
In 1774, when Gov. Hutchison was discussing 



Early Bestowal of Degrees. 7 

colonial affairs in Lord Dartmouth's office, Mr. 
Pownall asked if Harvard was a university, and if 
not on what pretence it conferred degrees. Hutchi- 
son replied "that they had given Masters' and Bach- 
elors' degrees from the beginning; and that two or 
three years ago, out of respect to a venerable old 
gentleman they gave him a doctor's degree, and 
that the next year, or next but one, two or three 

more were made Doctors After so long 

usage he thought it would be hard to disturb the 
college." 

It is a significant fact that at the beginning of 
the Revolution in 1776, George Washington was 
made a Doctor of Laws at Harvard, and at its 
close in 1783, John Warren, a Doctor of Medicine. 
From that time on, there was no hesitation in the 
bestowal of degrees in other faculties than that of 
Arts. 

I need not rehearse the steps by which the 
schools of Medicine, Law and Theology were 
added to the college, cautiously, indeed, (as out- 
side departments, which must not be allowed to 
draw their support from the parent trunk,) and yet 
permanently. It is a noteworthy fact that the 
example of Harvard and Yale in establishing 
theological schools has rarely been followed in 
other places, — even where schools of law, medi- 
cine and science have been established. It is 
enough to add that professional education was 



8 University Idea, Dormant hut not Dead. 

organized during the first thirty or forty years of 
this century, — in a much less orderly way than 
that in which the colleges were instituted. 

The third period in the development of higher 
education was the recognition of the fact that 
beside the three traditional professions, a multi- 
tude of modern vocations require a liberal train- 
ing. In consequence of this, came scientific schools, 
often, at first, adjacent to the classical colleges, and 
sometimes on independent foundations, many of 
these schools being aided by the national provision 
for technical instruction and by other noteworthy 
gifts. 

We are now fairly entered upon the fourth 
period when more attention than ever before will 
certainly be given to the idea of the university, — an 
idea long dormant, but never dead. The second 
decennium of this century was but just begun 
when a university was chartered in Maryland, and 
before it closed, the first of the western universities, 
endowed by a gift of the public lands, was organ- 
ized in the county and town of Athens, Ohio, pre- 
cursor of the prosperous foundation in Michigan, 
and of like institutions in other parts of the old 
Northwestern territory. Early in this century, 
Americans had frequently gone abroad for medical 
and scientific training, but between 1820 and 1830 
many turned their eyes to Germany for historical 
and philological study; and the line which began 



The Abuse of the Name Unwersity. 9 

with Everett, Ticknor, Bancroft and Woolsey, has 
been unbroken to this day. Through these return- 
ing wanderers, and through the importation from 
Germany, England and Switzerland of foreigners 
distinguished as professors, Lieber and Beck, 
Sylvester and Long, Agassiz and Guyot, and their 
compeers, the notion of a philosophical department 
of a university, superior to a college, independent 
of and to some extent introductory to professional 
schools, has become familiar. But the boldest inno- 
vation, and the most influential, was the work of 
one whose name is perpetually associated with the 
Declaration of Independence and the University of 
Virginia. It was in 1826 that his plans assumed 
form and introduced to the people of this country, 
— not without some opposition, — the free methods 
of continental universities and especially of the /" 
University of France. 

Thus, as years have rolled on, the word uni- 
versity, at first employed with caution, has been 
reiterated in so many connections that it has lost 
its distinctive significance, and a special plea must 
be made for the restoration to its true sovereignty, 
of the noblest term in the vocabulary of educa- 
tion. Notions injurious and erroneous are already 
abroad. Poor and feeble schools, sometimes in- 
tended for the destitute, beg support on the ground 
that they are universities. The name has been 
given to a school of arts and trades, to a school of 
9. 



10 Becent Movements toward the 

modern languages, and to a school in which only 
primary studies are taught. Not only so, but 
many graduates of old and conservative institu- 
tions, if we may judge from recent writings, are at 
sea. There are those who think that a university 
can be made by so christening it ; other's who suppose 
that that the gift of a million is the only requisite ; 
it is often said that the establishment of four facul- 
ties constitutes a university; there is a current 
notion that a college without a religion is a univer- 
sity ; and another that a college without a curricu- 
lum is a university. I have even read in the 
newspapers the description of a building which 
"will be, when finished, the finest university in the 
country"; and I know of a school for girls, the 
trustees of which not only have the power to confer 
all degrees, but may designate a board of lady 
managers possessing the same powers. 

Surely it is time for the scholars of the cauntry 
to take their bearings. In Cambridge, the anniver- 
sary so soon to be celebrated will not be allowed to 
pass without munificent contributions for most noble 
ends. The President of Yale College, who this day 
assumes his high office with the unanimous plaudits 
of Yalensians, is the representative of the uni- 
versity idea based upon academic traditions. The 
voice of Princeton, like a herald, has proclaimed its 
purposes ; Cornell has succeeded in a litigation 
which establishes its right to a large endowment ; 



Development of Universities. 11 

the Secretary of the Interior has commended to 
Congress the importance of a national iiniversit}^, 
and a bill has been introduced looking towards such 
an establishment ; the Roman Catholic Church, at 
its recent Council in Baltimore, initiated measures 
for a university in the capital of the nation; 
while on the remotest borders of the land the mft 
of many millions is assured for promoting a new 
foundation. Already in the Mississippi Valley 
men are laboriously unfolding their lofty ideals. 
It is therefore a critical time. Wise plans will be 
like good seed ; they will spring up and bear fruit 
a hundred fold. Bad plans will be like tares grow- 
ing up with the wheat, impossible to eradicate. 

It is obvious that the modes of organization will 
vary, so that we shall have many different types of 
universities. Four types have already appeared : 
those which proceed from the original historic col- 
leges ; those established in the name of the State ; 
those avowedly ecclesiastical ; and those which are 
founded by private benefactions. Each mode of 
organization has advantages which may be defended, 
each its limitations. If the older colleges suffer 
from traditions, the younger lack experience and 
historic growth. The State universities are liable 
to political mismanagement ; ecclesiastical founda- 
tions are in danger of being narrow. 



12 The Advancement of Learning. 

Under these circumstances, I ask you to consider 
the characteristics of a university, the marks by 
which it should be distinguished. 

It is needless before this audience to repeat the 
numerous definitions which have been framed, or 
to rehearse the brilliant projects which have been 
formed by learned, gifted men ; but I hope it will 
not be amiss to recall some of the noble aims 
which have always inspired endeavors to establish 
the highest institutions of learning. 

Among the brightest signs of a vigorous uni- 
versity, is zeal for the advancement of learning. 
Another phrase has been lately used, the " endow- 
ment of research." I prefer the other term, for it 
takes us back to the dawn of modern science, and 
connects our efforts with those of three hundred 
years ago, when Francis Bacon gave an impulse 
to all subsequent thought and published what his 
recent biographer has called the first great book 
in English prose of secular interest, — "the first of a 
long line of books which have attempted to teach 
English readers how to think of knowledge, to 
make it really and intelligently the interest, not of 
the school or the study or the laboratory only, but 
of society at large. It was a book with a purpose, 
new then, but of which we have seen the fulfilment." 

The processes by which we gain acquaintance 
M'ith the world are very slow. The detection of 
another asteroid, the calculation of a new orbit, the 



The Advancement of Learning. 13 

measurement of a lofty peak, the discovery of a 
bird, a fish, an insect, a flower, hitherto " unknown 
to science," would be but trifles if each new fact 
remained apart from other facts ; but when among 
learned men discoveries are brought into relations 
with familiar truths, the group suggests a law ; the 
law an inference ; the inference an experiment ; the 
experiment a conclusion ; and so from fact to law, 
and from law to fact, wdth rhythmic movement, 
knowledge marches on, while eager hosts of practi- 
cal men stand ready to apply to human life each 
fresh discovery. Investigation, coordination, and 
promulgation are not performed exclusively by 
universities ; but these processes, so fruitful in 
good, are most efficient where large numbers of 
the erudite and the acute, of strong reasoners and 
faithful critics, are associated for mutual assistance, 
correction and encouragement. It is an impressive 
passage with which the lamented Jevons closed his 
" Principles of Science." After reminding the 
reader of the infinite domain of mathematical 
inquiry, compared with which the whole accom- 
plishments of a Laplace or a Lagrange are as the 
little corner of the multiplication table which has 
really an indefinite extent, — he goes on to say that 
inconceivable advances will be made by the human 
intellect unless there is an unforeseen catastrophe 
to the species or the globe. " Since the time of 
Newton and Leibnitz, whole worlds of problems 



14 The Advancement of Learning. 

have been solved, which before were hardly con- 
ceived as matters of inquiry. In our own day, 
extended methods of mathematical reasoning, such 
as the system of quaternions, have been brought 
into existence. What intelligent man will doubt 
that the recondite speculations of a Cayley or a 
Sylvester may possibly lead to some new methods, 
at the simplicity and power of which a future age 
will wonder, and yet wonder more that to us they 
were so dark and difficult." 

Let me draw an illustration from another science 
which will be acknowledged as of transcendent 
importance even by those, if such skeptics there 
be, who have no confidence in transcendental 
mathematics. Cohnheim, the great pathologist of 
Germany, whose death occurred in 1884, declares 
in the introduction to his General Patholoo-v, that 
the study of the causes of disease is absolutely 
without limits, for it touches upon the most hetero- 
geneous branches of science. Cosmical physics, 
meteorology and geology, not less than the social 
sciences, chemistry, as well as botany and zoology, 
all bring their contributions to that branch of 
pathology. So with all his knowledge and ability 
this leader in pathology restricted his own work to 
the study of disordered physiological functions. But 
what prevention of suffering, what sanitary allevi- 
ations, what prolongation of life, may we not anti- 
cipate in future generations, when man thoroughly 



Tlie Conservation of Hxperience. 15 

understands his complex environment and adapts 
himself to it ? 

In the accumulation of knowledge as of other 
forms of wealth, saving must follow earning. So 
among the offices of a university we find the con- 
servation of experience. Ignorant as the nine- 
teenth century appears when we survey the long- 
category of inquiries now held in abeyance by 
mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, chemists, 
and biologists, by ethnologists, philologers, his- 
torians, and publicists, let us ask how much man 
has advanced since the ages of stone, of iron and 
of brass. Such books as Tyler's and Morgan's, 
such observations as those of Livingstone and 
Stanley show us what man is without a history ; 
what society is where no storage is provided for 
the lessons learned by successive generations, and 
where the wisest and best are content to pass 
away, leaving no sign. It is the business of uni- 
versities not only to perpetuate the records of cul- 
ture, but to bring them out in modern, timely and 
intelligible interpretations, so that all may know 
the laws of human progress, the dangers which 
imperil society, the conditions of advancing civili- 
zation. Experiments upon fundamental laws, — 
such as the establishment of home rule, and the 
adjustment of the discord between industry and 
.capital, — may destroy or may promote the happi- 



16 The Conservation of Ex^perience. 

ness of many generations. That mistakes may 
not be made, historical politics must be studied, 
and what is this but the study of the experience 
of mankind in endeavors to promote the social 
welfare? As there have been great lawgivers in 
the past, whose codes have been put to secular 
tests, so momentous experiments have run through 
centuries and involved the welfare of nations, 
experiments which have been recorded and inter- 
preted, but which call for still closer study, by 
the wisest intellects, before their lessons are ex- 
hausted. Can such researches be made in a 
moment? Can they be undertaken by a Knight 
of Labor ? Are the facts to be gathered in a cir- 
culating Library ? Or must we depend upon schol- 
ars trained to handle the apparatus of learning? 
Gladstone and Bryce and Morley may or may not 
be right in all the subordinate features of the 
measures which they are advocating ; but their 
influence at this very moment is resting on the 
fulcrum of historic knowledge, the value of local 
self government. Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison 
and Marshall were far from being " inspired " 
when they initiated the constitutional measures by 
which the United States are governed, and there 
is abundant evidence to show that they were stu- 
dents of the past experience of mankind in con- 
federated politics. The compact of the Mayflower 
was reduced to writing within the sheltering arm. 



The Conservation of Experience. 17 

of Cape Cod, but its ideas are those of men who 
knew the laws of Moses and Solomon and who 
had seen in Holland, as well as in England, what 
favors and what hinders the development of civil 
and religious liberty. Within the shadow of the 
University of Leyden a stone marks the spot 
where John Robinson lived, taught and died ; and 
the name of Elder Brewster of the Mayflower 
has been recently discovered among the matri- 
culates of Peterhouse, Cambridge, the oldest of 
the colleges on the Cam. In our own day the 
pioneers of 1849 carried with them to the re- 
motest shores of the continent ideas which soon 
took the form of laws, customs, colleges, schools, 
churches, hospitals, unknown under the Mexi- 
can sway, but they had learned these ideas in the 
historic schools of the Atlantic seaboard. 

The universities are the natural conservators of 
educational experience, and should be recognized as 
the guides of public education. In a better state of 
society means will be found to make the men of 
learning in a given generation responsible for the 
systems of primary teaching; giving potency to their 
counsel not only at the end but in every stage of 
scholastic life. Upon text books, courses of study, 
methods of discipline, the qualifications of teachers, 
the value of rewards, honors and examinations, 
the voice of the universities should be heard. The 
confusion and uncertainty which now prevail are 
3 



18 The Develojpment of Talent. 

indications that in schools of the lowest as of the 
highest grades, re- adjustments are needed which can 
only be wisely directed by those whose learning 
embraces the experience of many generations. The 
wisest are none too wise in pedagogics, but they are 
better counsellors than the ignorant. 

Dr. Lieber, in a letter to Secretary Seward, at 
the close of the Civil War, presented a strong plea 
for the reference of international disputes to univer- 
sities. Reminding the Secretary that their authority 
had been invoked upon internal controversies in 
France and Germany, he asked why not refer to 
them in international affairs ? The law faculty of 
a renowned university in a minor State would seem, 
he says, "almost made for this high function, and 
its selection as a court of international arbitration 
would be a measure worthy of England and the 
United States;" and he risks the prophecy that "the 
cis-Caucasian race will rise at no very distant day 
to the selection of such umpires, far more dignified 
than a crowned arbitrator can be." 

Among the offices of a university there is one too 
often undervalued or perhaps forgotten, — the dis- 
covery and development of unusual talent. I do 
not speak of genius, — which takes care of itself. 
Nobody can tell how it comes to pass that men of 
extraordinary minds are born of common-place par- 
entage and bred in schools of adversity away from 



The Bevelojpment of Talent. 19 

books and masters. Institutions are not essential 
to their education. But every one who observes in 
a series of years the advancement of men of tal- 
ents, as distinguished from men of genius, must 
believe that the fostering diet of a university — 
"its plain living and high thinking" — favors the 
growth of scholars, investigators, reasoners, ora- 
tors, statesmen of enduring reputation, poets and 
discoverers. Such men are rarely produced in the 
freedom of the wilderness, in the publicity of 
travel and of trade, or in the seclusion of private 
life ; they are not the natural product of libraries 
and museums, when these stand apart from uni- 
versities ; they are rarely produced by schools of a 
lower grade. Exceptions are familiar, but the his- 
tory of civilization declares that promising youth 
should have the most favorable opportunities for 
intercourse with other minds, living as well as 
dead, comrades as well as teachers, governors as 
well as friends. It declares that in most cases 
talents will seize opportunity and opportunity will 
help talents. Just now, in our own country, there is 
special reason for affirming that talents should be 
encouraged without respect to property. Indeed, 
it is quite probable that the rich need the stimu- 
lus of academic honors more than the poor ; cer- 
tainly, the good of society requires that intellectual 
power, wherever detected, should be encouraged to 
exercise its highest functions. 



\ 



20 Devotion to Literature. 

Cardinal JSTewman (in a page which refers to Sir 
Isaac Wewton's perception of truths, mathematical 
and physical, though proof was absent, — and to 
Professor Sylvester's discovery, a century and a 
half later, of the proof of Newton's rule fop ascer- 
taining the imaginary roots of equations) says that 
a parallel gift is the intuitive perception of charac- 
ter possessed by certain men, — as there are physi- 
cians who excel in diagnosis and lawyers in the 
detection of crime. 

Maurice, the greatest theologian of our day, was 
so strong an advocate of university education, that 
he suggests a sort of quo warrmdo forcing " those 
who are destined by their birth or property to any- 
thing above the middle station in society, and in- 
tended to live in England, ... to show cause why 
they do not put themselves in the best position for 
becoming what Coleridge calls the Clerisy of the 
land." 

Devotion to literature will always distinguish 
a complete university. Within the academic 
walls you may always find the lover of humani- 
ties ; here, in perpetual residence, those who 
know the Athenian dramatists, the Augustan poets, 
the mediaeval epic writers, Chaucer and Shakes- 
peare, and the leaders in literature of every name 
and tongue. In the class-rooms of the university, 
successive generations of youth should be pre- 



Devotion 'to Literature. 21 

sented to these illustrious men. The secrets of 
their excellence should be pointed out, the delights 
of literary enjoyment should be set forth, the pos- 
sibilities of production in our day should be 
indicated, — and withal the principles of criticism 
should be inculcated, as remote from sarcasm and 
fault-finding on the one hand, as from prostrate 
adoration and over-wrought sympathy on the other. 
It is common in these days to lament that the 
taste of the public as indicated by the remorseless 
self-recording apparatus of the public libraries and 
the glaring indications of the book-stalls, is de- 
praved ; but it is well to remember that many 
counteracting influences are vigorous. Fever was 
Shakespeare read and studied as he is to-day; 
never was Chaucer so familiar to the youth at 
school ; never was the Bible so widely read ; never 
were such translations accessible as are now within 
reach of all. In all this, the power of the univer- 
sities is felt ; give them the credit. .But let us hope 
that in the future more attention than ever before 
will be given to the study of literature and art. 
Fortunate would it be if in every seat of learnino- 
such a living teacher could be found as a Words- 
worth, a Tennyson, a Browning, or a Lowell. 

Among the characteristics of a university I 
name the defense of ideality, the maintenance of 
spiritualism. There are those in every genera- 



22 The Defense of Ideality. 

tion who fear that inquiry is hostile to religion. 
Although universities are the children of the 
Christian church, although for a long period the 
papal sanction was desirable if not essential to 
their establishment, although the earliest colleges 
in this country were strictly religious, and although 
almost every denomination in the land desires its 
own university, — there is an undercurrent of talk 
which shows that the influence of the higher edu- 
cation is often regarded in certain circles as 
adverse to spiritual and religious life. If this 
were so, many would prefer to see the academic 
walls fall down in a night, and the treasures of the 
ages reduced to smoke and ashes. But fortunately 
indeed there is no such danger. Alarmists are cow- 
ards. That piety is infantile which apprehends 
that knowledge is fatal to Reverence, Devotion, 
Righteousness and Faith. As the most recent 
utterances of science point more and more steadily 
to the plan of a great designer, as the studies of 
psychology and of history confirm the doctrine, at 
least as old as Solomon, that righteousness exalt- 
eth a nation, so we may affirm that the two essen- 
tials of Christianity, on which hang all the law and 
the prophets, — the love of Grod and the love of 
our neighbor, — are enforced and not weakened by 
the influence of universities. We may also rest 
assured that institutions devoted to the ascertain- 
ment of truth as the ultimate object of intellectual 



The Defense of Ideality. 23 

exertion and to the promulgation of truth as an 
imperative moral obligation, are not the harbingers 
of harm. Individuals will err ; generations will 
labor under false ideas ; domineering intellects will 
dazzle for a time the ordinary mind ; error like dis- 
ease must be clearly understood before the mode 
of correction can be formulated ; but there is no 
better way known to man for securing intellectual 
and moral integrity than to encourage those 
habits, those methods and those pursuits w^hich 
tend to establish truth. 

Near the close of his address before the Univer- 
sity of Munich, at the celebration of its jubilee in 
1872, a great theologian, Dr. Dollinger, referred to 
the perils of the times in words which w^ere received 
with prolonged applause. "Who knows," said he, 
" but that for a time Germany may remain confined 
in that strait prison without air and light which 
we call materialism. This would be a forerunner 
of approaching national ruin. But this can only 
happen in case the Universities of Germany, for- 
getting their traditions and yielding to a shamefal 
lethargy, should waste their best treasures. But 
no, our universities will form the impregnable wall 
ready to stop the devastating liood." 

The maintenance of a high standard of profes- 
sional learning may also be named among the 
requisites of a university. So it is on the contin- 



24 Mai7itenance of High Professional Standards. 

ent of Europe, so partially in Grreat Britain, so it 
should be everywhere. The slender means of our 
fathers compelled them to restrict their outlays to 
that which was regarded as fundamental or gen- 
eral education, and so it came to pass (as we have 
already been reminded) that professional schools 
were established in this country as independent 
foundations. Even where they are placed under 
the university segis, they have been regarded as 
only children by adoption, ready enough for the 
funds which have been provided for academic 
training, but without any claims to inherit the 
birthright. The injury to the country from this 
state of things is obvious. The professional schools 
are everywhere in danger of being, nay, in many 
places they actually are places of technical instead 
of liberal education. Their scholars are not encour- 
aged to show a proficiency in those fundamental 
studies which the experience of the ^vorld has 
demanded for the first degree in Arts. It is 
well known that many a medical school graduates 
young men who could not get admission to a 
college of repute ; ought we then to wonder that 
quackery is popular and that it is better to own 
a patent medicine than a gold mine. It was a 
wise and good man who said that there is no 
greater curse to a country than an uneducated 
ministry, and yet how common it is for the schools 
of theology in this country to be isolated from the 



Maintenance of High Professional Standards. 25 

best affiliations. Lawyers are too often trained 
with reference to getting on at tlie bar, and find 
themselves unprepared for the higher walks of 
jurisprudence and statesmanship. The members 
of Congress and of the State legislatures annually 
exhibit to the world poverty of preparation for 
the critical duties which devolve upon them. I 
am far from believing that university schools of 
law, medicine, and theology will settle the per- 
plexing questions of the day, either in science, 
religion or politics ; but if the experience of the 
world is worth anything, it can nowhere be so effec- 
tively and easily acquired as in the faculties of a 
well-organized university, where each particular 
study is defined and illuminated by the steady 
light which comes from collateral pursuits, from 
the brilliant suggestions of learned and gifted 
teachers. Moreover, science has developed in mod- 
ern society scores of professions each of which 
requires preparation as liberal as law, medicine, 
or theology. The schools in which modern sci- 
ences are studied may indeed grow up far apart 
from the fostering care of universities, and there 
is some advantage doubtless, while they are 
in their early years, in being free from academic 
traditions ; but schools of science are legitimate 
branches of a modern university, and- are gradually 
assuming their proper relations. In a significant 
paragraph which has lately appeared in the news- 
4 



26 Cultivation of the Spirit of Repose. 

papers, it is said that with the new arrangements 
for instruction in the University of Cambridge, 
England, its degree of Engineer will be one of the 
most valuable which can anywhere be attained. 

Finally among the merits of a university is the 
cultivation of a spirit of repose. As the distrac- 
tions of modern civilization multiply, as news- 
paper enterprise brings to our daily vision the 
conflicts and transactions of mankind, as books 
become super-abundant, and periodicals more and 
more indispensable, — and more and more technical, 
— some corrective must exist or there will be no 
more enjoyment in an intellectual life than there is 
in making money in the turmoil of the Bourse. 
The whirl of the nineteenth century has already 
affected the colleges, with detriment to that 
seclusion which best promotes the acquisition of 
knowledge. A man of great experience in public 
affairs has said that a great university should be at 
once " the best place of education, the greatest 
machine for research, and the most delicious 
retreat for learned leisure." This is doubtless the 
truth, — but it is only a half truth. Universities 
with ample resources for the support of investi- 
gators, scholars, thinkers and philosophers, numer- 
ous enough, learned enough and wise enough to be 
felt among the powers of the age, will prove the 
safeguards of repose, not only for those who live 



Cultivation of the Spirit of Bejpose. 27 

within their learned cloisters, but for all who come 
under their influence. A society of the choicest 
minds produced in any country, engaged in receiv- 
ing and imparting knowledge, devoted to the study 
of nature, the noblest monuments of literature, the 
marvellous abstractions of mathematical j-easoning, 
the results of historical evidence, the progress of 
human civilization, and the foundations of religious 
faith, will be at once an example of productive 
quietude, and an incitement to the philosophic 
view of life, so important to our countrymen in this 
day, when the miserable cry of Pessimism, on the 
one hand, and the delightful but deceitful illusions 
of Optimism, on the other hand, are in danger of 
leading them from the middle path and from that 
reasonableness of mind which first recognizes that 
which is, and then has the hope and courage to 
strive for the better. 

In what has now been said, it has been made 
apparent that our fathers brought with them to the 
western world the idea of a university as an insti- 
tution superior to, though not exclusive of a college, 
and that this idea, sometimes obscured by mist, has 
never lost its radiance. I have also called your 
attention to some of the functions which are embo- 
died in the conception of a university : the advance- 
ment of learning, the conservation of knowledge, 
the development of talent, the promotion of spirit- 



28 Universifij Endowments. 

iiality, the cultivation of literature, the elevation 
of professional standards, and the maintenance of 
repose. 

I add a few suggestions of a practical character 
which I hope will be approved in this seat of 
learning. , 

We should look for the liberal endowment of 
universities to the generosity of wealthy indivi- 
duals. It is doubtful whether the national gov- 
ernment, or the government of any State, will ever 
provide funds which will be adequate for the 
highest education. There is a growing disposition, 
in the eastern States, to restrict all provision for 
public instruction to schools of primary and 
secondary rank. Were any legislative body to 
appropriate a sufficient financial support, there is 
nothing in the tendencies of modern politics to 
show that the representatives of the people, as they 
are in these days elected, would have the wisdom 
to mark out the pathway of a great university. 
Ecclesiastical zeal is more likely to be successfully 
invoked. The conception of a university pervaded 
by a spirit of enlightened Christianity is inspiring 
to the mind of every believer. It seems to associ- 
ate religion and science as co-workers for the good 
of man. It is more than probable, under this con- 
sideration, that a Catholic university will ere long 
be initiated, and if it succeeds, the example may 
lead to a union of Protestants for a kindred object. 



Banger of too many Weak Foundations. 29 

But it would be a misfortune and an injury, as I 
believe, to the religious progress of the country, if 
each of the denominations into which the evan- 
gelical world is divided were to aim at the main- 
tenance of a university under its own sectarian 
name. The endowments which are called for are 
too large to be made up by petty contributions. 
Great gifts are essential, and consequently, those 
who in the favorable conditions of this fruitful and 
prosperous land have acquired large fortunes, 
should be urged by all the considerations of far- 
sighted philanthropy to make generous contribu- 
tions for the development of the highest institu- 
tions of learning. There is now in the Grolden 
Book of our republic a noble list of such benefac- 
tors. Experience has shown no safer investments 
than those w^hich have been given to learning, — 
none which are more permanent, none which yield 
a better return. 

It is a common error in this country to suppose 
that we need many universities. Just the reverse 
is true, — we need but few, but we need them 
strong. There is great danger that funds will be 
scattered, teachers isolated, and scholars kept away 
from their proper iields, — by attempts, of which we 
have seen too many, to establish post-graduate 
courses with very inadequate means. Even pro- 
fessional schools have been initiated where the fees 
of the pupils have been the only criteria of success. 



30 Danger of Undue Specialization. 

We should lend our influence as scholars to enlarg- 
ing the resources of the universities which are 
strong, and to discourage new foundations unless 
there is a positive guarantee that they are also to be 
strong. There are half a dozen or more places 
which could be named where a million of dollars 
would be more fruitful than thrice that sum in any 
new establishment. No greater service could be 
rendered at this time than a rigid enforcement of 
the scriptural rule, " For whosoever hath, to him 
shall be given, and he shall have more abundance : 
but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken 
away even that he hath." 

There is another danger to which I must call 
attention — the danger of an incorrect conception of 
the purposes which should influence young men in 
pursuing university courses beyond a college cur- 
riculum. Those who have watched the tendencies 
of graduated students must have observed with a 
good deal of alarm the disposition which they some- 
times show to concentrate attention upon very spe- 
cial subjects. Unfortunately many of these persons 
are entirely dependent for their support on the sal- 
aries which they may earn, JN'ow instead of bring- 
ing to the educational exchange, qualities which 
are always in demand and which always receive 
remuneration, they come forward as Doctors of 
Philosophy with special attainments in some lim- 
ited field, and are saddened to find that there is no 



Danger of Undue Specialization. 31 

demand for the acquisitions which they offer. I 
do not hesitate to say that if the drift of university 
work in this country is toward premature and ex- 
cessive specialization, many a mariner is doomed to 
shipwreck on that rock. Even in Germany, where 
specialization has been favored, the cry is heard, too 
many specialists, too many university candidates. 
It would be a misfortune to this country if we should 
find, in the course of a few years, a superabundance 
of men with rare acquisitions of a kind for which 
there is no demand. It would then be rightly said 
that our universities did not produce the fruit which 
had been expected. On the other hand, if residence 
in a university, beyond the college course, is found 
to widen the student's capacities as it increases his 
knowledge ; if he learns the art of imparting what 
he. knows, if he acquires the sense of proportion, 
and sees the subjects which he studies with the 
right perspective, if he strengthens the founda- 
tions as he carries upward the obelisk, then he 
will gain and not lose by prolonged preparation 
for the duties of life. For every individual who 
may with wisdom be encouraged to devote him- 
self to a very limited domain, there are scores 
who may be bidden to widen their culture. I do 
not now refer to those upon whom Fortune has 
smiled and who have the means to do as they please 
in preparing for life ; but I have in mind many a 
struggling aspirant for the scholar's fame who 



32 Conclusion. 

would be a happier and a more useful man if he 
had not set his face so resolutely against those 
studies which adorn the intellectual character and 
give grace, dignity and acceptability to their pos- 
sessor. The first business of every man is to win 
his bread ; if he is sure of that, he may wander at 
his own sweet will through meadows and woods. 

In all the difficulties which are encountered by 
those who are endeavoring to advance the institu- 
tions of this country to their highest usefulness, 
great encouragement may be derived from a study 
of the results secured in other countries and in other 
ages. It is only by the review of long periods of 
time that the most instructive lessons can be 
learned. The history of European universities is 
yet to be written by one who has the requisite 
vision, and who can estimate with an accurate 
judgment the various forces by which they have 
been moulded, and the various services they have 
rendered to humanity. But there are many his- 
tories of famous foundations, many biographies of 
illustrious teachers, many surveys of literature, 
science, and education, many elaborate schemes of 
organization, and many proposals of reform. The 
mind of a master is indeed needed to co-ordinate 
what is thus recorded ; to be the Interpreter of the 
House called Beautiful. But the American scholar 
need not wait for such a comprehensive work ; the 
American philanthropist need not delay his bene- 



Conclusion. 33 

factions until more experience is secured. The 
centuries speak with many voices but they are all 
harmonious. From the revival of letters until 
now, from the days of Gerson, the great chancellor 
of the University of Paris, five hundred years ago, 
every advance in civilization has been dependent 
upon the influences which have proceeded from the 
seats of learning. Their light has illuminated the 
foremost nations of Christendom. In days to 
come, more than in days that are past, their power 
for good will be felt upon the interests of mankind. 
Let us hope and believe, let us labor and pray that 
the American universities when they are fully 
organized may be worthy allies of the strongest 
and best foundations,— steady promoters of Knowl- 
edge, Virtue, and Faith. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




